Fighting tendonitis while being vegan

by Diogo
(Portugal)

Hello Joshua,

My name is Diogo and I used to play bass and guitar, until both my wrists started to hurt really bad after playing for many hours. I stoped playing, and the pain kept increasing. That was about two months ago. The pain is still there, and I can't even write, typing is hard. Modern medicine didn't help, and I've been reading your fantastic website and receiving your e-mails on wrist tendonitis (I'm on day 4), and everything you say makes sense.

I really want to play bass again but I think we have a problem here. I'm totally willing to change my diet and take suplements (even though that my financial situation is really bad), but on the other hand, I'm vegan I don't really want to change that.

Considering you said this ''There's lots of crappy vegetarian and vegan food and gluten free food that is really just junk food.'' and you talk about meat, fish, milk and eggs as main sources for pretty much every nutrient, what can I do? Can you help me with this?

Also, I'll start the ice dipping today. I've done ice massages two weeks ago and it didn't help, but I did it for three days only.

Thank you so much in advance, and sorry for the bad english.

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Joshua Answers:

Hello Diogo.

Youre english is great, no worries.

You've asked some great questions, let's see if I can offer something of value.

1. Write back and describe the pain, the symptoms, the behavior of the pain/symptoms (duration, intensity, exact location(s), what helps/what makes worse, etc.

While all the same factors are involved, tenosytis and tendonitis have slightly different behaviors (but important to know which is which).

3. Vegans/vegetarians are pretty notorious for various nutritional deficiencies, primarily some of the B vitamins. (Meat eaters are too, I'm not saying here that eating animal cures everthing).

One CAN be vegan/vegetarian and nutritionally sufficient, but one has to be smart about it.

Let me rephrase that: if you are vegan or vegetarian and feel fine, great. But if you're vegan or vegatarian and -don't- feel fine, then it's evidence that you're not getting what you need from your dietary choices.

4. Along those lines:

FACT: You can't get enough Vitamin D from food sources.

FACT: Vegans have to work REALLY hard to get adequate B12 from their food sources.

MY OPINION: If you're short on Magnesium, B6, B12, Vitamin D, and have Symptoms of Tendonitis, one MUST supplement therapeutically if you want your pain and problem etc to go away any time soon, if ever.

ALSO, if you ice dip enough (3 days might not have been enough to lower your pain levels, depending on how often you were dipping and how cold the water was) but inflammation/pain doesn't go down, that points to nutritional insufficiency/deficiency.

Comments for Fighting tendonitis while being vegan

Hello, thank you very much for replying.I read the Tenosynovitis and it fits the description. Actually, I was diagnosed by a doctor with that, but I had the idea it was pretty much the same thing as tendonitis.

If there's something I have trouble describing, is pain. But it's an inflammation pain. My wrists and entire hands hurt no matter what I do. The pain levels have been increasing everyday, and if I make the smallest effort, it hurts a lot more.

Typing on this keyboard, for instance. I have school projects to do on the computer and this definitely doesn't help.

I'm not really willing to eat animal products as much as I want this symptoms to disappear, because my veganism is really important to me. If it’s REALLY necessary, I can eat eggs from time to time, but because I’m taking supplements I don’t believe it’s necessary. I've been supplementing with chelated magnesium (800 mg/day)for a week and a half and Solgar's Vitamin B-Complex ''100'' for 5 days. I'll try really harder the ice dipping from now on, but please tell me what else should I do.

I’m really desperate now, because I can’t do anything to survive if this keeps going on. I’m 17 and this is really destroying my life. It may be my fault, but still…

Thank you so much, you seem to really know what you’re talking about, and I trust what you have to say to me. I just think it’s not necessary to eat any animal products, because so many people are vegans and are so healthy. I think it’s a matter of being smart, as you mentioned. I haven’t been.

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Joshua Comments:

Hi Diogo.

Tenosynovitis pretty much is the same thing as tendonitis, but tenosynovitis has it's own behavior/flavor, and it's symptoms are more acute and stubborn.

Definitely hit the Ice Dipping heavily. That's very very important.

You said "If it’s REALLY necessary, I can eat eggs from time to time, but because I’m taking supplements I don’t believe it’s necessary."

Belief is a funny thing. Belief is based on knowledge and opinion, and (we're all guilty of this) there's always more to the story (meaning we don't understand the facts fully so our belief is not necessarily aligned with the truth).

For instance, that's a good amount of magnesium, but I'd go higher and find your tolerance level.

Your B-complex, like all B-complexes, have ALMOST NO B6 or B12 in them, not even close to enough to making a difference. And B6 is required to utilize Magnesium....

We don't yet know the main cause of your tenosynovits/tendonitis dynamic, but nutrition is always the first factor to deal with. You might not need to deviate from a vegan diet, but I would add in more good fat (coconut oil, avocado, etc) for sure. And supplement as described in Reversing Wrist Tendonitis.

May 18, 2013Rating

Joshua Replies to Diogo - Fighting Tendonitis While Being Veganby: The Tendonitis Expert

ONLY organic, pastured, cultured, raw (dairy, not meat really other than Sushi)* Butter is nutritious and healing* Fat is nutritent rich and healing* Bone Broth is the best Tendon Supplements* Organ meats are chock FULL of good/necessary nutrition* Eggs are great sources of fat and protein* Raw milk....YUM!

If you're vegan or vegetarian for whatever reasons you are, -and- you have a tendonitis dynamic, you have two choices:

1. Remain vegan/vegetarian and try to heal from that context or

2. Include some or all of the above into your diet for at least a short time period to help you heal fast.

Maybe you don't have to eat meat, but eggs and butter and raw milk might be an ok compromise.

I don't care what you do, I just care that you get the nutrion you need so your body can work optimally...which it's not doing now.

Either way, I suggest you supplement. Your body MUST have the nutrition it needs if you want to get out of pain.

Sure, it's possible that nutrition isn't a factor in your pain dynamic, but personally I wouldn't bet any money on that.